the haiku circle

vincent tripi: Founder . . .

Over 25 years and yet it seems that my haiku-path is just beginning. There is a sense of being bound on an adventure. Have i not quite braved the emptiness? Have i not quite braved the fullness?

What is it about poetry that it delivers us from one mystery to another until we ourselves are the mystery? What is it about haiku that makes it both a question and an answer? It answers us each & every time we begin to questions ourselves . . . to question life. It's a small poem. It's a small door. It's a small key and a small lock.

One seeks for resolution as the beetle seeks the water. Is the water. The search for answers is as futile as the search for haiku. The search ends with the searcher. It ends with the current.

We are born into the flux, while at the same time, being born into the stillness. Both are harvestable. Both worthy of following. Both are necessary in the poem. i can't quite explain what that means to me. All i can say is that poems are my special way of questioning the reader, of challenging their consciousness, of reaching out for help to find the bottom.

Prolonged studies in philosophy and later psychology led to a career in children's services, crisis-intervention & especially residential treatment.

During the 70's he came under the guidance of a spiritual master. For a period of time afterwards, he taught yoga & meditation, eventually residing in three different spiritual settings

In the early 80's he took up the solitary life with a cabin in New Hampshire. This resulted in a first book Haiku Pond, which the author admits was a rudimentary attempt at the practice.

Later, after moving to San Francisco, he helped form The Haiku Poets of Northern California and was instrumental in creating their first magazine Woodnotes (Transcendentalist roots) which he co-edited with the late Haiku-Master Paul O. Williams.

Since then he himself has edited a substantial number of haiku books including the collected poem of Charles B. Dickson, the sole haibun publication of Jerry Kilbride, & the final volume of poetry by H.F. Noyes.

He is author of approximately 12 books of haiku, two interview books, and two collections of short meditative-reflections on writing poetry. His newest work is entitled to what none of us knows.

Under his own tribe press, he edited & produced a popular series of what he called "pinch-books". Sixteen such pinch-books are in print. vincent also edits the letterpress-edition Masters Series from Swamp Press.

In 2006 he founded The Haiku Circle, a completely unique gathering of haiku poets which takes place each year in early June.

vincent is most closely associated with the spiritual movement in American Haiku.

Settled in Greenfield (2001), he resides in the hill-valley-river country of Western Massachusetts.